Adjusting the handbrake cable tightness with drums

[brainbug007]

So I'm trying to set my drums up properly now and struggling with the handbrake a bit. I know the cable should be fairly tight when the handbrake is off and then use the dial thing with teeth at the top of the shoes to adjust it. But I can't seem to get the right level of tightness as I'm assuming when the drum goes on over the shoes and the handbrake is off there shouldn't be any resistance while trying to turn the wheel by hand, and then once the handbrake is applied the drum should lock up? If that's right I seem to either be too loose or too tight (to the point where I need to whack the drum on with a hammer). Anyone got any pointers where I'm going wrong??

[baz-r]

the key is with drum brakes is to first get the shoes set and ajusted as close to the drum as possible with both brakes off as the shoe ajuster effects the length of the link between the shoes (dont worry about slight rubbing noise but shoud be turnable by hand on the drum) the h/brake cable has a plastic stop in the back plate so a slack cable should not effect the shoe ajustment too much.
now pump the hyd brake to settle the shoes and possiblely edge the auto ajuster out a click, recheck to see if you get a slight restence and contact noise if not edge the shoes out a bit on the ajuster manualy.
when this is done the h/brake should be easyer to ajust.
it is possible you have cut your cable inner too long and it needs to be a bit shorter.
i set mine with the ajuster right in and now the h/brake just works ok all the way with the ajuster all the way out
there is not much room for cable ajustment with the postioning of brackets on the chassis.

[Bonzo]

Probably best to think of handbrake adjustent as a 2 step job

Step 1: Brake shoe adjustment
Step 2: Cable adjustment

Step 1

Make sure the cable has a little slack.

You can now start adjusting the brake shoes, typicly done through the slots on the shoe assembly backplate with a flat bladed screwdriver.

Take each wheel on turn & wind the adjusters out until the brake shoes lock the rear wheel ( Can sometimes help to gently tap the outside of the drums with a copper hammer as this can help to centre the shoes )

Once the rear wheel is locked, back the shoe adjuster off a couple of clicks.
This should set the shoe to drum, running clearance.

You may find that the shoes are still rubbing lightly on the drums, more often than not, they will be completely free after a short run as this will bed in & fully centre the shoes. ( If the wheels are binding too hard, back off another couple of clicks )

Step 2

Using the plastic adjuster on the handbrake cable, adjust the cable to take out some of the slack.
This will adjust the handbrake lever travel.

I guess 6 or 7 clicks on the handbrake lever should be enough travel.

Obviously when the handbrake is pulled up, the rear brakes should lock & you should still have some reserve travel of the handbrake lever.

Once all adjusted up, give the car a short drive, may help to work the brake pedal & handbrake lever whilst you drive ( Again this will help to bed in the shoes, center the shoes correctly & allow time for the automatic adjusters to set the shoe to drum clearance )

It goes without saying, if your going on a test drive it needs to be done in the absence of other traffic

Once steps 1 & 2 are done

Jack up the rear wheels, let the handbrake off & check that the rear brakes are not binding.

If after all of this the brakes are still binding the rear drums & shoes will need to be striped down to find out what the problem is.
Most of the time it will be either, incorrectly fitted springs or siezed automatic adjusters.

Other faults
Siezed/dry handbrake cable.
Too tight a bend in the handbrake cable & pinching the inner cable.
Siezed/sticky slave cylinder.

Hope this is of some help

[brainbug007]

Whaa ok I'm proper confused now. This is alot more complicated than I first thought! So it sounds like I can't set it up properly until I put my pedalbox and brakelines/fluid etc in?

So the adjusters you're refering to, is that the dial thing on the top of the shoe assembly that has the teeth?

When you say:

Take each wheel on turn & wind the adjusters out until the brake shoes lock the rear wheel ( Can sometimes help to gently tap the outside of the drums with a copper hammer as this can help to centre the shoes )

Does that basically mean keep turning the wheel by hand while knocking the adjuster out with the screwdriver until the shoes push out far enough to lock the drum?

For this part:

Using the plastic adjuster on the handbrake cable, adjust the cable to take out some of the slack.
This will adjust the handbrake lever travel.

Again I'm confused here as I can't really understand how the plastic adjuster takes up the slack of the cable. Should both parts of the plastic adjuster be on the diff or tunnel side of the plate or one part on the tunnel and one part on the diff side? Also I struggle to see how turning the plastic bit tightens the cable as surely it just stretches the metal part and doesn't affect the inner cable itself as this is free to travel along the inside of the metal part?

[Bonzo]

Sorry if my post has confused you a little

It's a kind of generic guide to adjusting the handbrake of a road going vehicle fitted with a conventional rear drum brake set up.

That said, it is applicable to the Ford Sierra.

Didn't know you were in the process of just rigging it all up

All you can do for now is roughly adjust the brake shoes & find the correct length for the handbrake cable.

First, wind the shoe adjusters out untill the rear wheel locks.
Yes they are the little cogs that you can see through the drum back plate.
These should be quite easy move by levering with a long narrow flat bladed screwdriver.
You may find that on one side you may need to lever the cog upwards & the other side the cog needs to go downwards.

Once the rear wheel is locked, back off the adjust a couple of clicks. ( This can be a bit tricky as some auto adjusters have a non reverse tab fitted & this will need to be one side to allow the cog to back off )
Tricky but easily done once you get the knack.

Once done, the brake shoes should be roughly set & you can now turn your attention to the handbrake cable.

If using a sierra cable, there should be a plastic adjustable section in the centre on one side of the cable & just a plain fitting the other side.

The adjustable part is there to remove the slack in the cable once it has been shortened to the approximate length.

Don't know how you have shortened your particular cable though so it is very difficult to give you the best advice

[brainbug007]

Thanks Bonzo this is helping loads! It's a sierra cable I'm using & I just cut the nipple off one end and fed it through, cut the slack off and then put a solderless nipple on.

For the plastic adjuster, if you look at the picture in this post http://www.haynes.co.uk/forums/showp...27&postcount=1 and at the adjuster on the left, mine is currently setup with one 1/2 on the tunnel side and the other 1/2 on the diff side if that makes sense?

[flyerncle]

One thing to look out for is the lip on the drum edge,grind it off so as the drum slides over easily and this makes adjuting more easy and more efficient.